The TimeLess Workshop
by That One Secretary
Summary: A side compartment to my main KHR fic, expect unfinished one shots, scrapped chapter headers, jotted down and ill written pieces of one am blubber, and maybe, just maybe, ill take short story requests while I'm struggling heavily to write more than three lines for my 6000-8000 word quota. Nothing posted here is final and probably heavily unedited.
1. Chapter 1

SCRAPPED CHAPTER HEADER 1- The scene in which Rydia was introduced to her room-mates, scrapped due to Rydia and Iris being completely OOC. (The cringe is real, help me)

...

Flavia fell clear off the top bunk when her blank staring into space was interrupted by the vaguely familiar battle aura from earlier in the day, making their way unerringly down the corridor to the dorm she shared with 2 other girls.

The gothic mist scrambled to her feet, skin already purpling from the minor abrasion, and practically threw herself into the bathroom, slamming and locking the door with a flare of Indigo Flame- if what Superbia had said was right, the Hibari was a Cloud, and she had no intentions of being in striking range when Iris realized.

A rotund Lightning watched with dry amusement as the stick of a Mist locked the door, calmly settling back into her claimed bed, History book open in front of her; though her attention was clearly on the curvy girl doing her nails on the bed below the one Flavia had fallen from.

Her Flaxen hair fell to hide cherry brown eyes and a wry smirk; the curly haired Cloud sparing an annoyed scowl in her direction- Iris Hepburn turned flattering round eyes on the door when the Lightning failed to yield a reaction, more focused on the bland and single knock that had sounded clearly.

She rolled her violet eyes, gaze cool, and reclined with lazy grace- even so, she stiffened with a sharp inhale as the door was abruptly kicked down with enough force that it _splintered,_ and the Lightning hid suspicious cough into an oversized sweater, the nicknamed 'Trigger-Happy Tracker' blatantly intrigued.

"And that is why you open the doors to strangers kids, because there's a high chance they'll kick your door down otherwise."

The girl dusted off her slacks as she talked, striding into the room with lavender bright eyes that cast a barely there glow over her cheekbones; a sign of actual Flame strength and not eye color. Iris had regained her catty countenance with surprising ease as she observed the…Indian? Italian? Cloud.

"You do realize you're cleaning up the mess?"

"You do realize I'm willing to do the same to the person who was supposed to give me the damn keys?"

"It was her,"

The Lightning says, immediately throwing the weaker Cloud under the proverbial bus- the position of Alpha was a fickle thing, and the moment the girl had fought _Superbia fucking Squalo_ to a standstill, was the moment she had gained the title.

"Brilliant! Keys please, and while I'm fully willing to clean up the mess, it's really a matter of perspective. As a Mafioso, being vague isn't the brightest idea- after all, with how you haven't even reached for a weapon in face of threat, _you,_ are one hell of a pathetic mess. At least the blonde grabbed her pen."

Said blonde wisely kept the fact the pen was her actual weapon to herself as the weaker Cloud flushed, eyes darkening.

"Quite a rude way to introduce yourself to people you'll be sharing space with,"

The senior drawled darkly, tapping too long and too sharp nails on a leg.

"Was it? How curious. You almost seem like you expect me to care. At any rate, one of you tell me where my keys are before I- Oh, good evening…Flavia, was it?"

The Cloud childishly side tracked herself, and the Lightning saw the moment Iris realized she hadn't been registered as enough of a threat to warrant her full attention- said Mist mumbled something that may have been a greeting back through the door.

"Rydia Hibari, powerful Cloud and Scholarship student- the Hibari's aren't a Mafia Family, and it seems they don't care if you don't join the Yakuza, making you unalleged. My name is Lena. Good Evening."

The Lightning, newly dubbed Lena, murmured with a slowness to her speech that either hinted at a lack of proficiency in the language, or a more thoughtful take to what she said. The Hibari blinked at her with a dry curve to her lips, rocking back on her heels and looking back at Iris, who had swung her legs off the bed.

"Good evening Lena. And purple contacts, just saying it now, by the way- I have no interest in your personal space nor independence- judging by your reserve size, you aren't strong enough to lay claim to entire swathes of land. You're sharing a bunk with another girl, meaning your Flames are Introverted- the only thing you're territorial about is your independence, isn't it?"

"And what about you? You going to go rabid guard dog on us?"

Iris retorted, but she had stopped tapping her nails- Lena deflated instantly, having been looking forward to a fight. Sighing, the Lightning flipped the page of her textbook slowly, clearly dreading the next passage.

"Don't give me my keys, and you may find out."

A pause, before Iris smirked and tossed the other Cloud her copy, mockingly splaying her arms in a sweeping motion- Manipulative and distasteful she may be, but when faced with verified threats, she wasn't _stupid._

Oh, she'd push at boundaries, but it seemed the traditional hazing routine of Russian Roulette had been scrapped.

From their side, anyways.

"Welcome! You get the bunk above Lena. As a customary warning, Flavia sleepwalks, and the last time we left the door unlocked, someone shot her, and the entire girls Dorms had to be evacuated. I say had to be, but what I really mean is that most girls ran out screaming and cursing; with quite some lot clutching crucifixes; the rest various weaponry, and the few that stayed behind were the Mists capable of subduing her."

"…. Fun."

"On that note, we're not waking you up for anything, so get your schedule straight. Lena's a kleptomaniac- "

"-Stop _telling_ people- "

"-And If you kill anyone in here, common rule is that your either kicked from the dorms, or you clean it up, since the butlers here never seem to be able to knock down the walls in time. I think that's all, and you should know the only reason I'm being this helpful is because you didn't immediately jump the gun to being an asshole."

"Duly marked- any hierarchy I have to watch out for? ~"

"Apart from the fact you managed to become the 'Alpha' in a day, and thus drop kicked another girl specializing in traps straight to Omega? No."

"…. _Shit."_

"Fuck more like it, Fucked backwards up a donkeys arse."

"…Thank you for your valuable input Lena."

…


	2. Chapter 2

SHORT STORY BLUBBER 1- Just something i thought of relating to spicy food and Rydia, though this isnt a definite character trait- I'm more inclined to making her a 'burn down the kitchen three times a day' kind of Cloud.

...

…

Rydia blinked in confusion, paused with her spoon still in her mouth as Flan lunged across the table and at the water jug like his life depended on it, the desperation out of place on the usually stoic Mist.

It had been her turn to make dinner for the assassination group, the lot taking turns after Lussuria had fallen sick, and she had ended up making one of the more cultural orientated dishes from the before.

Squalo had erupted into curses a few moments ago, wrestling with Belphegor for the second jug once it became clear Flan wouldn't be releasing it for all the apple pie in the world, the fallen prince's trademark grin strained as he fanned at his mouth- Xanxus had simply stilled once the first mouthful had entered his mouth, and was staring at her blankly. Mammon, who had entered around the time Flan dropped his composure, blandly tipped their own serving into Lussuria's plate, the sun happily going at the food without pause.

"Weaklings,"

She scoffed after a moment and went back to eating her own cooking, colored faintly red as it was by all the spices thrown in.

"YOU'RE FROM JAPAN! THE HELL DID YOU EVEN LEARN HOW TO MAKE THIS- "

The swordsman raged, the boss calmly going back to the dish after his pause of inactivity in a way that suggested he just didn't want to admit defeat.

She smirked in bemusement, and casually bit into a dried chili, ignoring the vaguely offended sound Bel made in her direction.

Honestly.

…

…

Rydia's eyebrow rose steadily as she witnessed the rest of the Hibari Clan reacting to her cooking dinner, the reason being the current Matriarch; Kyoya's mother; wanting to see what she could do. The woman had gone from calmly refilling her glass to tipping the contents of the water jug down her throat in a refined manner more suited to drinking from a flute of champagne. Her husband; native to japan and with none of the desensitization his wife may have had on terms of the clan originating in China; had defaulted to the most impressively deadpan expression she had ever seen, chopsticks snapped in his fingers. He didn't seem to have realized. Her old man was chuckling to himself in a faintly strained manner as he poked at the rice on his plate with morbid fascination, unearthing several dried chilies as well as their seeds- a 5-year-old Kyoya took one look at the rest of the Clan, and tipped his plate unceremoniously into her own.

She politely looked away and preemptively presumed she wouldn't be cooking for them again any time soon.

…


	3. Chapter 3

UNFINISHED ONESHOT- I thought making a civilian Au would have been fun, but only got around to starting it, thus the abrupt end.

Civilian AU, Autumn edition!

Rydia wasn't even surprised at this point.

Throwing her arm over her face, she listened irritably to the incessant drilling that flitted through the thin walls- her room was shrouded in the darkness of the early morning, robin egg blue light shuffling warily through her drawn curtains.

Tucking her knees further under her chin, she stared silently into the black around her, and ignored the faint impressions of faces she thought she could make out- while not fully a victim of hallucinations, the saying 'when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you' was especially applicable to her.

A moment of deliberation, before she rose a hand to the wall behind her headboard, and let out a series of knocks.

 _You awake?_

4 minutes, and she was starting to lose hope, when she got a response.

 _Fuck you._

She grinned at the loud, annoyed knocks of her flat mate, not a least bit guilty about taking advantage of his light sleeping habits.

 _Suffer with me? I have coffee._

 _You better have coffee, or I swear I will come at you with a kitchen knife._

Smirking, she stretched out lazily, before swinging her legs out of bed- a moment taken to clean up, before she's ambling out into the slim corridor barefooted against the cold marble.

Even without help of the lights, she finds the kitchen easily enough- she's tempted to make the coffee without the lights as well, but after the last incident, she would rather not test her luck again.

Unsurprisingly, its only when the thick aroma of instant coffee is circulating the house that she hears the others door open reluctantly- Squalo trots into the room with bleary sterling eyes and a stifled yawn, platinum blonde hair loose in a long curtain around him- she greets him with a middle finger as he swipes himself a mug of coffee from the pitcher, and he returns it as he curls up tiredly on the couch, body tilted to face her.

A light patter starts up as rain begins to fall, and almost childishly, she immediately stands from her seat on the arm chair to drag said chair over to the floor length window; watching the rain sharply.

"...How much creamer did you put into your coffee?"

He deadpans, his angle allowing him to clearly see the tea brown she had turned her coffee to, his own mug darker than pitch.

"I don't know. I'm aiming for a coma."

She admits, and they both fall into a comfortable silence that could only be built with years of the others company.

considering they had made it through university together, decided to room with each other after they graduated because really, they were practically siblings at this point, and could casually send each other to the ICU without fear of charges being pressed, warranted a sense of ease around the other.

That being said, the flat they paid for together was a _three_ bedroom.

They exchanged looks, and he abruptly realized why she was sitting nearly nose to nose with the rain drenched window.

He drags a hand down his face.

"VOIIIII, FOR _FUCKS SAKE- "_

She grins, shit eating, and holds up a hand, doing a count down on three fingers-

As the last finger folds, there's a thump from one of the rooms, followed by loud cursing and a window being shut harshly.

She snickers as a dripping wet Xanxus strides into the room, looking grumpy as his fringe plasters firmly to his forehead- he remarkably resembles a drowned cat.

"Yo~"

"VOIIIII, YOU LOOK LIKE A FUCKING DROWNED CAT YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

"Shut the fuck up,"

He spits at both of them, and makes to toss Squalo the bike keys- he isn't expecting Rydia to lunge from her chair and tear the keys from midair, dumping her mug on the table and taking off like a buck towards her room.

Squalo cursed violently and tore after her; his fingers skimmed her back before the door nearly slammed shut on them- she laughs hysterically from inside the locked room, and he kicks harshly enough at it that the hinges groan.

Xanxus drags a hand down his face, decides Coffee was more important than his idiots, and swipes both their drinks.

Rydia rushes to exchange her sweatpants for a pair of ripped skinny jeans, even as she slammed the latch on her window shut, wedging a coin under for good measure- she doesn't bother trying to change out of her loose black pajama top, instead throwing a thick olive windbreaker over it.

She damn well knows Squalo wouldn't kick her door down, but their apartment building was nearly flush against another whose parapets were at window level with their flat- in short, all three were well versed with both parkour and how to break into windows; rainy weather be damned.

Diving into the connected bathroom, she back kicks the door shut and forces open the slim window above the counter- clambering onto it, she's just about slim enough to force herself through the gap despite her fairly pronounced hips.

The flat is still 5 stories up though, and so she has to free fall and catch the edge of someone's balcony, swinging her legs over the railing and using it to get to the fire escape.

She hears Squalo curse at her, and her heart leaps to her mouth with the adrenaline- she slides down the slick railing and leaps off into an alleyway, taking a sharp turn into an out of the way parking spot they had all agreed to leave the bike at.

Throwing her leg over the bike seat, she kicks up the stand in a smooth motion and starts the engine, rechecking that her jacket did indeed have her wallet and phone in- reassured, she smoothly maneuvers the bike into merging with the traffic, knowing that she wouldn't be pulled over for the lack of helmet considering the neighborhood they had chosen.

Having said that, there was a certain amount of childish glee in who got the bike, Squalo and Rydia both working day jobs; Rydia as a barista at the local coffee shop, and Squalo at a martial arts dojo.

She ignored the smile across her face as she slowed down, confident she was too far for Squalo to bother to chase her- the fight was often because not only were their places of employment fairly far from their apartment, but because hailing a cab, paying, and just generally participating in social interaction was a drag; even if most of the cab drivers around here knew better than to engage in more conversation than necessary with them.

It had become a game of sorts to the three of them, becoming the worst kids on the block until at some point during their high school years, they had turned into a bunch of vigilantes with absolutely no moral integrity.

As in, though they kept the younger kids and the adults that paid them out of gang scuffs and such, they hardly stopped said gangs forming.

Xanxus was more involved with collecting the protection fees, though there was an old man that ran a garage with his grandkids he had ended up taking a shine to, and who had somehow roped the red eyed menace into helping out for a decent fee.


	4. Chapter 4

HAVE SOME UNPOSTED ONE SHOTS! Too short to be a marker special,are probably not canon and are more crack than anything.

…

Xanxus watched through lazily lidded eyes as his proclaimed 'left hand' read out the progress reports concerning the teamwork training she had somehow conned the rest of the Varia into partaking- the Battle Commander seemed unconcerned that her boss was far from interested as she concluded the report with a comment on how Squalo was too unpredictable for them to work with, ending up with him becoming their center of attack while the others worked around him.

She inclined her head to him sharply, turning to presumably make her way to the Tsukuyomi garden that she had had built.

"Why do you follow me."

He forced out suddenly, and the woman paused at the threshold of the room to give him a studying glance, one he knew to mean that she was considering whether to answer him honestly or not. Upon realizing he meant the question for all the guardians, and not her specifically, she seemed to reach a decision as she grinned viciously at him.

"I came for the calamari, stayed for the squid~"

"It's the same thing, Cloud trash!"

He snarled as she ducked out quickly from the room, narrowly dodging the bottle of Merlot that smashed against the door after her.

Damn scum.

…

…

Rydia easily met the crimson eyes of the bastard Vongola heir, eyes narrowed and sharp. She supposed that some may have been off put by the intensity of his glare, but she was far too used to meeting similar eyes in the mirror, and so it was with none of the usual fear that Xanxus was graced.

"What the hell are you staring at, scum"

He sneered viciously, and her eyes dropped from His own to focus on his nose- she had the inane urge to cave it in.

"Your nose you sad excuse of a cleft lipped hippo,"

She snarled, and he had to take a moment to eye her as though she was a retard, though she would admit her insult warranted it.

It did the job though, since the 11-year-old surged from his seat, face contorted in rage- all it served to do was bring her target closer as she gave into her impulse, and spun around in a Cloud Flame enhanced back kick that crunched his nose in with a spurt of scarlet blood.

He didn't waste any time cracking a fist into her ribs, far stronger than she had expected.

Then, they were street brawling in a way that would make her old man face palm, both forgoing any specialized combat for clawing nails and gnashing teeth. She may have heard Dino scream shortly as she hurled the other sky through his desk, but Xanxus was quick to prove his reputation as a dead shot when he threw Squalo at her hard enough that she went through the window, Swordsman roaring in half shock half anger.

It just got worse when she ended up hooking a leg around Xanxus' before she fell, taking all three future Varia members down with her out of a 6th story window.

Three-way brawls were never pretty to witness.

Especially when they remembered they all had weapons on them.


	5. Chapter 5

SCRAPPED CHAPTER HEADER 2- The scene in which Rydia is being affected by Mary Sue's control, scrapped because i didnt know how to lead from there.

...

Rydia couldn't walk straight anymore.

Panic bubbled in her chest as she attempted to stride forward, only to feel herself teetering dangerously to the side- she ended up having to catch herself on a table edge, and allowed herself to slide to the ground in stunned shock.

Dino watched worriedly, hands fiddling with themselves- he was standing with the perfect posture she wouldn't have expected from him, but the worry seemed superficial, like he was putting on a halfhearted show.

Squalo had his face planted into a table, silver locks catching the sunlight streaming through the arched windows- he was slumped, and she could practically feel the lethargy rolling off him.

Dust layered everything in the abandoned classroom, but she was less interested in Dino's succession of cat like sneezes, and more focused on tracking their Flames.

Squalo's Rain Flames seemed to be attempting to behave as they always did, but for some reason would snap into a jerky, confused pattern before realizing what it was doing, and the process repeated.

It reminded her disturbingly of what Murasaki had done when she had first tried to force her Cloud Flames into a continuous beat, but none of them seemed to be aware of what they were doing- Dino's Sky Flames were no longer trying to search for potential guardians; directly being forced against its nature.

And she said forced, because out of all of them, Dino was the worst off, with her coming a close second.

It had been a week since the new Scholarship student, and in that timespan, at least three fourths of the schools' population had been hospitalized, with the teachers having gone down first.

The only nurse not yet hospitalized had diagnosed most of the patients as victims of Flame rejection; a condition in which you tried to ignore your true nature to the point of mental breaks.

Most common in inactive civilians, it was usually solved with therapy, though most cases ended in suicide- in the mafia however, where you were actively dealing _with your own life force,_ there was a real danger of spontaneous combustion.

When it was realized nearly all the students were suffering from it, Flame suppression pills had been handed out with strict instructions to use them sparingly and only when you felt yourself beginning to lose consciousness involuntarily.

The hopes were that it would subdue your Flames long enough for you to physically recover; though taking more than one a week could deplete your reserves to the point of being shunted into a comatose state, therefore damaging your reserves irreparably.

Considering she had already experienced it, she had most definitely _not_ been given the pills.

Students had died of overdose anyways.

It had taken her 2 days to get over her own pride and check in with Squalo and Dino, paranoia winning out- it wasn't like any of the other students would willingly let her track their Flames for more than a few minutes, and she wasn't keen on getting her face burned off by out of control Storm Flames- that being said, it had taken another 5 days of dogging Squalo and snarling at him about how stupidly lazy he was being by not even _trying_ to fix his Flames, before she had got them all in the same room.

Now, as she watched Squalo growl lowly and reluctantly pop his first pill, she realized she literally had no idea what to do.

The Mafia Families invested in the Academy had not been able to pursue the threat, and the Academy had ended up being quarantined anyways in case it was some sort of Flame activated disease- the large Families such as the Vongola, the ones who would be equipped with the resources to deal with the threat, had abruptly been thrown into chaos as systemic attacks began to be thrown at its heirs.

It marked the true start of Canon, and though none of them had died yet, she knew it was just a matter of time.

Sighing, she slid onto her back to stare at the arched ceiling.

...

ONE SHOT OF IDIOCY, GO!

...

Xanxus knew he had guardians that were beyond unorthodox, but he had never really minded or looked that far into it.

They were his, and that was the simple, cold, hard, truth of the matter.

It didn't matter how strong they were, how vicious lined their every muscle line, it didn't even matter how plain _randomly idiotic_ they could be.

They were his.

And as he halted at the threshold of the lounge area, Bester twining around his legs, he really wasn't sure why he even had to do a subtle double take anymore.

"Yo~"

Rydia drawled at him- she was sprawled on her stomach, pinning Squalo to the floor beneath her- the shark seemed to have given up on life, face down in the carpet, and with both of their blood slowly seeping into it.

Xanxus chose not to address how the fuck Rydia hadn't died to the inch-deep gouge running down her back.

Squalo raised his head only to slam it back into the floor again.

Belphegor and Flan were trying their level best to shove the heavyset Lightning guardian the rest of the way out of the window, while Lussuria and Mammon seemed to be engaged in the most intense thumb war this side of Italy- around them, Rydia's Box weapon seemed to be shaking Squalo's Shark in its jaws like a rabid racoon, the sun peacock was strutting around wrecking shit, and he had half a mind to shoot somebody for the demolished walls as well as the pressure cooker lid in the ceiling.

Instead, he very calmly turned on his heel, and walked away.

His insane Cloud's laugh followed his heels, and he wondered why he kept getting out of bed on Fridays.


	6. Chapter 6

Rydia didn't do honey pot missions, but her current one had started to push the line.

The parameters had been simple- kill the boss of a minor drug cartel rapidly approaching infamy before things got out of hand, in a way that wouldn't tie it back to the Varia or Vongola. Leave no traces, and let the body be found as an intimidation tactic.

She had considered a brutal slaughter of the mans closest guards, but the show of strength might encourage them instead of dissolve them; It would've given the impression that they had become big enough to catch the attention of the large fish.

Which they _had,_ but the principle stands.

As it was, she had had a base line all planned out- slip into where the boss thought he was the safest, and kill him with no witnesses with a simple throat slash. She wasn't half bad with a hunter knife.

How it stood though, made the simplicity not nearly simple enough- the man was _paranoid as all heck,_ and travelled everywhere with guards, even having them watch him as he slept.

Killing them would be too messy, considering he travelled in a pack of _twenty, what the hell,_ so she had ended up looking into his hiring roster.

She hadn't been able to slip in as a bodyguard or _any kind of lower level worker_ , since the time she would have needed to construct a suitable persona far exceeded the amount of time the cartel would have needed to jump countries.

Which they had.

And she was kind of considering just blowing up their private jet, but _mission parameters._

So, she had ended up needing to grab the earliest public flight to India from Germany under her civilian persona of one 'Chiara Andros'; a ditzy heiress to a company that acted a cover for one of Vongola's above ground stations, who was fond of travelling to exotic places and going off grid in the cities.

In short, it was 7 and a half hours of using her Cloud Flame strength to prevent the person in front of her from reclining their seat despite their cursing and yells about 'broken seats', because really, first class was in no way subtle, and _she had legs longer than your torso shut the hell up and deal with being upright, you're in economy._

…. She might have been taking out her frustrations in an admittedly petty and satisfying manner, though, in her defense, being Chiara meant a shit ton of face paint to make her skin seem unholy levels of pale in comparison to her actual skin, and a blonde wig that did nothing to improve her mood. Not to mention the contacts, and okay, maybe she was a bit paranoid.

Though considering recent police activity, she remained of the staunch opinion that it was very much needed.

Disregarding that, she made it past customs with a smile and a surreptitious hiding of her face from a lot of cameras in ways she perceived to be 'natural', because she didn't particularly want people to start linking Chiara to the collapsing of major underworld operations on an international scale.

It took her another week to hunt down the cartel into the throes of Delhi, and the metropolis did little to put her at ease- the high crime rate did though, since police resources were likely to be spread thin if she avoided the more active areas.

The boss was very fond of the active areas.

This mission clearly hated her, and she couldn't even use Varia resources since she had taken the job under the clause in her contract that allowed her the ability to take freelance jobs as long as they didn't compromise the Varia or Vongola; which meant she was working independently, and fine.

It wasn't the first time.

Would have been a shit ton easier if she had been assigned an idiot.

Her recon finally seemed to give her a break when the boss moved his modus operandi into the red-light district, leading back to her previous thought-

This mission was seriously pushing the limits of what was and was not considered 'Honey pot.'

Because the only time the paranoid bastard left his guards behind was when he was getting it down in some shady backside club with drugs shuffling with every card deal.

Three broken hands from unrelated parties, one eye gouged out with a broken glass containing a drugged drink, and at least _two_ people shoved into janitor closest later; and she had finally noted a pattern under the flashing lights and cheap beer.

This sleazy, overweight man in his thirties, who was _incredibly short_ compared to most of these heeled women (and her _barefoot,_ never mind the heeled ankle boots she had worn for the purpose of fitting in), who smelt weirdly like avocado, was apparently trying to hit on every female of the Indian origin before the night was over or people stopped throwing up.

Which was…She was fairly certain she hadn't imagined that one woman in a sari who had backhanded him and tried to choke him with her dupatta before her clearly drunk fiancée pried her off and away.

Sighing, because _whatever,_ it made her job considerably easier, _how had she not noticed before,_ Chiara Andros strutted into one of the bathrooms stinking of cheap cigarettes, and Hibari Rydia walked out.

She smoothed her bangs away from her face, and that, combined with the still in grey contacts and covered up scar, made her practically unrecognizable.

Only the sharp bone structure and rich skin tone gave her away.

Well, that and the height.

Slipping into the crowd, she allowed a faint pang of annoyance at the amount of sweaty human beings in close contact with her, before managing to catch the man's eye.

And if her smile was a little too fake, a little too sharp, a little too _I haven't slept in 18 hours chasing you down,_ and screaming 'sociopath'- She thinks she can be forgiven.

She doesn't even try and dance, ( _its not like she could- seriously, a squad of elite assassins, and not one of them can club dance-),_ but a simple sway of her body and roll of her hips has the man practically salivating over her legs; which is great because anything else would have made her look like a flailing baby giraffe.

Dark lighting can only hide so much pinwheeling.

It's a bit pathetic; the red dress is long enough most considered it modest, and she's very clearly hiding a knife in the pretty bow cinching the waist, but okay avocado man.

Which is how she ends up dragging a dead body spending 20 minutes positioning him to look like he was slumped over his drink- it would be suitably traumatic for whatever civilian or drug trafficker so much as pokes him, and she considers her job there done.

By which point she finally spots the mini security camera blinking at her from behind a winked-out light, and _what the fuck._

Her poker face slides into form, and because she's 70 shades of done, and 30 shades of ' _They totally saw my face'_ she smiles in a way she knows looks dangerous, and salutes the camera with two fingers.

Then, she strides away with utmost confidence, and _books it like hell is on her heels_ the moment she leaves the bar, because she has no doubt that the footage will at some point find its way to the FBI division set aside just for the Vongola.

She's just glad Chiara hadn't been caught on cam, because her dress is a bit obvious.

As it is, she's already out of the country when a subtle alert goes up, and even though the footage was too grainy to make out more features other than the skin tone over a million people share, Squalo never lets her live down the rookie mistake.

(Never mind that it works out, since they now think the 'Regal Berserker' has an Indian civilian persona and not a swiss one.)


End file.
